Ms Rhodes met the pair only the night before they set off but both had visited her regularly in hospital.

"I can recommend if you're choosing a climbing partner, you choose someone who can save your life."

Ms Rhodes said doctors hadn't given her an estimate of her recovery time but she realised she was facing a long recuperation.

"Obviously it was Vaughan and Simon who rescued me, but there are a lot of other people who were involved, from paramedics to doctors and hospital staff. I don't know how to say thank you to everybody."

Burwood Hospital neuro rehabilitation practitioner Dr John Maasch said Ms Rhodes was "a lucky lady" to survive the fall and be able to walk out of hospital less than three months later.

"If she'd been left alone on the mountain for much longer, hypothermia and frostbite could have set in."